


Six Years In Making

by CapricornQueen



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-31 16:31:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3985018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapricornQueen/pseuds/CapricornQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate Universe - Modern</p><p>Nux and Capable grew up together, and then grew apart. When they meet again in University, it doesn't seem like much has changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Six Years In Making

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift to strawberry-b-birthday on Tumblr. Thanks for the prompt.

The genius was listening to metal again. Nux could hear her feet pounding along with the beat through his headphones. He rubbed his temples and knew that he couldn’t ignore her this time.

The computer screen lit his face, and it washed his skin out to the point that he was as white as paper. His essay was maybe half done, and definitely due in five hours.

Slit, his roommate, was gone for the night. He had a couple of girls that he had on rotation, and if his memory was any good Slit was out with Dag.

Nux watched as the bass made his desk rattle in time and decided that here, this Sunday night, he was making a stand.

He was going to march over there, tell that girl that not everyone could pull A’s without studying and it’s a goddam Sunday. Where was her decency?

 

Or maybe he’d just stutter out an apology and ask her to put in headphones.

Nux winced. He was such a coward.

He tossed on a military green T-shirt and walked over to her door.

She had ripped the nametag off her door and a scraggly piece of tape sat square under the eyehole instead.

Nux took a breath and rapped on the door.

The music shut off immediately and the silence was so complete that Nux wanted to hide and avoid this conversation.

The door opened after a heartbeat, and the genius herself was propped against the doorframe.

“Sup?”

Nux licked his lips and swallowed hard. “Hi, um, I’m sorry to bother you but I have a paper due tomorrow? And I just started it and I can’t focus with all the…”

Nux internally moaned. Oh my gods. What was the word?

“Racket?” She filled in for him. Nux felt his whole face turn red.

“Yeah. The racket.”

“You can hear my music from your room?” The girl gave him a once over and Nux wished he had thrown on a heavy sweater to hide himself in.

Nux nodded.

“Ah shit.” She glanced over her shoulder at something in her room. For a horrible moment Nux thought that maybe the music was meant to be covering up something a bit more embarrassing. Maybe her dancing feet was more like the headboard of her bed clattering against the wall.

“I’m so sorry. Did you have someone over?”

The girl laughed. “Gods no. It’s just… I thought no one could hear my music. I’m so embarrassed. I’m Capable, by the way.”

“I’m Nux.”

She looked him over again.

“Nux. I used to know a boy named Nux.”

“I used to know a girl named Capable.” Nux replied without thinking. She had red hair too.

Capable froze. “Where did you grow up?”

Her question was sharp and more like a command. She expected an answer.

“T-the Citadel. It’s north of Crowsnest.”

“Oh my gods.” Capable was eying him intently, and then she threw herself into him. Her arms wrapped around his torso and she gave Nux one of the tightest, rib-breaking hugs he had ever experienced.

“Oh my gods! Nux! I can’t believe it’s you! I never thought I’d see you here, a liberal arts school, of all places.”

Nux couldn’t respond. He was still recovering from his bruised ribs and the fact that this gorgeous girl, and his childhood crush were one in the same.

“Yeah, I’m here on scholarship.” He chuckled.

“Come in! Let me make you coffee.” Capable grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the room. She sat him down at her desk and poured him a cup out of the kettle. There was a spoon already in the cup. “I’m so happy to see you! I can’t believe this. And all these years I thought you were going into auto work.”

“My dad wants me in the military, but I have to get a degree first.” Nux pale fingers wrapped so tight around the mug of coffee that his fingernails turned white.

“So you live and breathe for this guy’s approval still, yeah?” Capable pulled her hair out of her ponytail and let the curls fall free.

Nux grimaced. “When you say it like that I sound awful pathetic. You seem like a pretty normal adult without any daddy issues. You wouldn’t understand.”

“You’re right,” Capable said. She jumped from her table top to the bed and settled on a fuzzy green blanket. “I don’t have a dad. I don’t get it.”

Nux felt the blood drain clear out of his face. “I-I didn’t mean it like that.”

Capable waved her hand at him and gave a shrug. “I know you didn’t.”

The room fell into an uneasy silence. Or maybe it was just Nux who felt uncomfortable in his own skin now. Capable seemed perfectly content to lounge on her bed and check her phone. Nux took a long sip and scalded his tongue on the beverage. He just kept drinking it though. He’d rather have his tongue burned off than say something stupid around her again.

“Gods, six years.” Nux looked up and found himself face to face with Capable. She had shimmied her way half off the bed and was now barely an inch away from his face. She inspected him, and the scrutiny of her eyes left him feeling naked. Her eyes searched his once more before pulling herself back onto the bed.

“Last time I saw you was six whole years ago. What a small world. And I didn’t recognize you.” Disappointment coloured her words and Nux couldn’t help but feel that if he a bit more muscled, a bit taller, a bit better, her words wouldn’t sound so dissatisfied.

Funny how six years could pass and nothing really changed at all.

Nux smiled a bit and stirred his coffee with the spoon she gave him. “Yeah. I can’t believe we both ended up here.”

“I used to have a crush on you, you know?” Capable said. Nux’s spoon froze mid-stir. He could feel heat crawl up the back of his neck and he prayed to every god that it wasn’t noticeable.

“Is that so?” He tried nonchalance, but his voice was just a touch too high, and his shoulders a tiny bit too tight to be convincing. Nux just hoped that Capable’s mind was somewhere else and she wouldn’t notice.

He dared a look.

Her mind was completely gone. Capable was sprawled out on the bed with her red curls tumbling off the side. She supported her head with her arms and had a half-smile on her face.

“Yeah, I liked you a lot!” She laughed and glanced over at him. “Well, as much as twelve year old can. Kids don’t have a really solid grasp on emotions. You know how complex developmental psychology is, so I’m not going to think too heavily on it or else I’ll talk all night.” She laughed again.

Nux nodded and pretended that he understood most of everything she had just said. She was still so much smarter. Capable grew into something more beautiful, and devastatingly intelligent, than he ever could imagine. And he was just Nux still.

“And then, poof.” She let out a quick breath of air. “You left.”

“My dad got promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. We had to move East to the army base there.” Nux replied. His blush was just beginning to abate and he tried his coffee again. It was a much more tolerable temperature this time around.

“What a nightmare.” Capable’s lips tightened. “The pre-teen age group has the highest mental instability rate among humans. Around that age your social skills must have just begun to develop too. I couldn’t imagine being uprooted during that time of social and emotional trauma to start fresh somewhere else.” Capable shuddered.

“I got by.”

“Did you like me too?” Capable asked.

Nux felt the muscles in his jaw freeze. “I, what?”

“Did you like me back, Nux? Because I felt like you did but you never said anything or did anything about it.”

Nux wanted to reply. He wanted to lean back against his chair and look at Capable in a way that could convey all his admiration, desire and interest in her without his messy words slowing him down. Slit could look at girls like that. All Slit had to do was glance towards a girl and she was blushing and giggling at him. But Nux was Nux, and not Slit. So instead he played with the hem of his shirt and when he spoke it was barely more than a whisper.

“I like you. I mean- I liked you. Back in middle school. Um.” He laughed but it was a nervous titter that made him internally grimace. “Well it was hard not to like you. You were so scary, but nice to me so…”

When he looked up he found Capable’s eyes glued on him.

“You thought I was scary?”

Wrong. Fuck. Wrong thing to say.

Nux wished he could low-key bash his head against the desk until all the stupid was knocked clean out of him and he could carry a conversation with the girl who was the only thing that added colour to his childhood without making a fool out of himself.

“I did back then.”

Capable blushed and Nux caught a hint of smile before she ducked her head behind her pillow.

“You’re so nice, Nux!”

“Um, you’re welcome.”

Capable laughed and tossed the pillow at him.

He fumbled, but ultimately got his hands around it. He let out a sigh of relief. There was no coming back from missing an easy catch like that.

“I wanted to be scary when I was a kid. I wanted to be like Toast. You remember Toast?”

“Your foster-sister? She scared the shit out of me.”

Capable nodded. “She was a quiet scary. The kind of person who you knew you shouldn’t mess with, but you didn’t really know why. It was more of a feeling that she’d cut your throat rather than past violence scaring you off. I wanted to be her.” Capable rolled onto her stomach. “I feel like such a dick now: blaring my music and dancing at godforsaken hours. How did you not come and pound on my door and tell me to shut up earlier?”

“Like I said: I was scared of you. I’m still a bit scared of you.”

A wide smile spread across her face. “So you’re still shy, you’re still scared of me and you still work way harder than I do. You really haven’t changed.”

“I even still like you.”

All of the bravery Nux had been saving up was used to say that one sentence. And the moment the words were in the air he wanted to die.

Capable’s head shot up and she stared at him.

Yep. Nux wanted to die.

“Look at that. You have changed. Middle school Nux wouldn’t have had the cajones to say that to me.” Capable said with a smirk.

“University Nux barely had the cajones to say it.” Nux mumbled. Capable laughed and jumped off her bed.

“I barely know you anymore. I don’t know if I still like you, but I want to go for a drink and find out.”

“There’s a really cool bar just off campus. ‘The Watering Hole’?”

“It’s a date. Six years in the making, apparently.”

“I don’t think I can live up to a six years in the making date.” Nux replied and stood and followed Capable to the door.

“Well, we’re going to find out, aren’t we? I’ll slide my number under your door tomorrow.”

And she did.


End file.
